So you’re sitting alone at home, debating whether to clean your bathroom or watch another episode of This Is Us on On Demand, when the mood suddenly strikes you to — how do I put this delicately? — pluck out a few chords on the ol’ skin banjo, or go spelunking in a deep Southern cave. Basically, you want to masturbate.
Sure, masturbation is fun, not to mention a great way to procrastinate performing mundane household activities. But did you know that while you’re feelin’ yourself, you’re improving your health at the same time? Seriously. It’s like the under-your-pants equivalent of SoulCycle. (Not really, but the point still stands.) In fact, none other than Amber Rose recently pointed that out during an interview with Glamour, where she claimed that regular masturbation was the key to maintaining a dewy complexion.
Don’t believe it? Here are 11 surprising health benefits to regular masturbation.
1. It Improves Your Heart Health
Love both orgasms and hearty steak dinners? Good news: Orgasms have been proven to improve heart health for women. In fact, a 1976 Israeli study of 100 women found that women who were at higher risk of heart disease had fewer orgasms than women who weren’t. While this isn’t exactly an excuse to swap out your cardio routine for your vibrator, it’s pretty good news nonetheless.
2. It Decreases Your Stress Level
You know that euphoric, starry-eyed feeling you get right after you have a particularly satisfying orgasm? You can harness that feeling by using your masturbation routine as a form of stress relief. Orgasms release the “feel-good” chemical oxytocin, a hormone “that plays a big role in feeling calm and relaxed,” says Ian Kerner, Ph.D., a sex, marriage, and family therapist and author of the book She Comes First. “There’s a stress-relieving effect and the comedown from a neurochemical effect is always relaxing.”
3. It’s Basically a Form of Acne Medication
As it turns out, Rose knows what she’s talking about: Oxytocin reduces your levels of cortisol, or the stress hormone, which can make your skin appear puffy and red. Reduced stress also leads to clearer skin, meaning you’re less likely to encounter stubborn zits.
4. It Helps You Fall Asleep
If you’re one of the people with insomnia, you know just how much of a bummer it is to spend your nights rolling around in bed, trying to get just a few hours of shuteye before your alarm goes off. The next time that happens, Kerner recommends reaching not for a bottle of Nyquil, but for a Hitachi Magic Wand instead.
“Orgasms release prolactin, which has a soporific effect,” he explains, meaning that the hormone plays a role in inducing sleep.
5. It’s a Natural Antidepressant
Considering that an estimated 350 million people worldwide grapple with some form of depression, it’s worth noting that there is some evidence that the feel-good chemicals brought on by masturbation, such as dopamine and oxytocin, “lift your spirits, boost your satisfaction, and activate the reward circuits in your brain,” says clinical sexologist Dr. Gloria Brame. “In other words, it’s nature’s own antidepressant.” While that’s obviously no alternative to regular therapy if you struggle with mental illness, it is worth noting that masturbation’s brain-boosting effects can be especially helpful to people like the elderly, who “may be struggling with stress and sadness.”
6. It Relieves Your Headaches
Prone to migraines? While rubbing one out might not necessarily stop the avalanche of rocks inside your head, science shows that orgasms can relieve minor headaches, says Kerner. “Orgasm lowers your inhibitions and lowers your pain threshold,” he says, citing a 1985 study that found that women’s ability to withstand pain increased by 53 percent after vaginal stimulation. “Orgasms have an analgesic effect.” So maybe put down the Advil and pick up your vibrator instead.
7. It Can Help Cure Your PMS
When you’re stuck in bed for days because it feels like a tiny little man is methodically punching you in the uterus, sex is likely the last thing on your mind. And yet, orgasms have been scientifically proven to help relieve cramps by increasing blood flow to the uterus. An added bonus: Orgasms tend to help lift up your mood, so if you’re prone to vicious dragon-lady mood swings, they can help you feel like an actual person again.
8. It Helps Keep Your Lady Parts In Good Working Order
You know the phrase “if you don’t use it, you lose it”? While that doesn’t exactly apply to vaginas, it’s not super far off the mark, says Brame. “It’s important to keep working the perineum and pelvic floor muscles (contracting the vagina, writhing the hips, thrusting the pelvis, arching the back, etc. etc.) throughout life if you want to maintain prime sexual function,” she says. Simply touching yourself “warms up the area by getting good blood flow to the region.”
9. It Could Help You Last Longer In Bed
Are you familiar with Kegels, the pelvic floor exercises that keep the muscles in your bathing suit area toned and tight? While doing Kegels is crucial to maintaining control of your pelvic floor muscles, which is particularly important for women who have just given birth, doing a couple squeezes during masturbation can also help you learn how to delay orgasm, thus giving you more endurance in bed (or during solo sex — whatever floats your boat).
“Plenty of women practice Kegels while masturbating, because it’s a technique they want to master, because it feels good during actual sex for both a woman and a man,” Kerner says, adding that “women could use Kegels as an ejaculation delaying mechanism if they wanted to.”
10. It Could Make You Smarter
A 2013 study from Rutgers demonstrated that when a woman has an orgasm, blood flow increases to all parts of her brain, thus increasing regular brain activity. Will touching yourself while watching porn three or four times a day make you a genius? Probably not, but at the very least, you have a good excuse to stop playing those dumb brain-training games (which have been proven not to be super effective, anyway).
11. It Could Help You Live Longer.
So now that you’ve been getting yourself off daily, your mood is great, your skin is glowing, and you’re able to calculate the tip at a restaurant without using your iPhone. On top of all that, having regular orgasms has also been linked to increased longevity, according to a longitudinal study of hundreds of couples, which determined that women who reported having more orgasms tended to live longer than women who were less satisfied by their husbands. Take that, 110-year-old woman on the local news who credits her long life to a diet of whiskey and bacon! Orgasms aren’t only way better for you, they’re also a lot more fun.
Source: Redbookmag.com